Arch Linux

Vrob

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 42

[SOLVED] No keyboard available for cryptsetup passphrase over VNC

First of all: Yes, I've read the news and I already tried the proposed workaround (adding

earlymodules...

to my kernel command line in GRUB2).

Now here's my problem:
I run Arch on a vServer (hosted at filoo.de) that is encrypted using luks. Due to the recent OpenSSL apocalypse and some other major package upgrades I figured it was time to reboot the machine. Now I'm sitting at the passphrase prompt without any keyboard support. Not even Ctrl-Alt-Del works. I guess that this is related to the recent deprecation of P/S2 modules in the initrd but as I wrote earlier the posted solution doesn't cut it for me.

The server is accessable through a webbased VNC Client called novnc, only. As far as I can tell, the machines are run by vmware. So I think, I just need to get the kernel to load the correct module for the vmware keyboard emulation? If so, how do I achieve that?
I hope that I supplied all the necessary info

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Vrob (2014-04-09 10:38:35)

Vrob

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] No keyboard available for cryptsetup passphrase over VNC

I found a solution to my problem, though I cannot really explain what happened and why it worked.
I booted the vServer with an Arch Live Disk, decrypted the virtual HDD and chrooted into my actual environment. Once I got there, I added the keyboard hook the the HOOKs array bekfore the encrypt hook and rebuilt my initird. For safety, I also added atkbd to the MODULES array. That caused my keyboard to work properly during the passphrase prompt.

What remains mysterious to me is why the proposed workaround from the news didn't work for me...

brain0

Developer

From: Aachen - Germany

Registered: 2005-01-03

Posts: 1,382

Re: [SOLVED] No keyboard available for cryptsetup passphrase over VNC

If the keyboard hook is missing entirely, the earlymodules= workaround has no effect. It only helps when the keyboard hook is present, but autodetection of the atkbd module fails. The news post tells you exactly if you are in this situation. If you are not, the MODULES="atkbd" should be unnecessary (but not harmful either).

In any case, the most important thing to remember is this: Everyone needs the keyboard hook now.

Last edited by brain0 (2014-04-09 15:55:25)